Safeguarding the future of Italian opera

Italian conductor Riccardo Muti’s Italian Opera Academy was launched in 2015 in Ravenna’s Teatro Alighieri. We explore the impact of the maestro on the next generation of opera artists

Mark Pullinger

‘The language of Italian is the language of legato!’ Riccardo Muti is in fine form, holding forth in a lecture-concert about Bellini’s Norma, the chosen opera for the latest edition of his Italian Opera Academy. We’re at the stylish Fondazione Prada in Milan, which is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture, but the 82-year-old conductor is dedicated to preserving something much older: Italian opera. It was while being interviewed at the Salzburg Festival last summer that he bemoaned the state of opera and how conductors are marginalised in a system where ‘stage directors have now become the gods’. Some years ago, Muti decided that he wanted to devote more time to young students, to pass on the knowledge he has acquired over a long career in the orchestra…

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Opera Now (Digital) - 1 Issue, Summer 2024

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